Murder story of Radziwillow Jews in the Suchodolie Grove

… On the night of Friday, June 2 [sic] [1942] all the [members] of the local authorities together with the Gestapo that had arrived [Radziwiłłów], as we learned later on, got drunk at the German canteen. At 4 a.m the two parts of the ghetto had been encircled. The part of the [ghetto] [where had been kept the qualified] workers was surrounded only by six Ukrainian [auxiliary] policemen, while the other part [of the ghetto, i.e. for the unqualified persons, was surrounded by] 130 different kind of bandits – Germans, [local] Ukrainian auxiliary policemen and [apparently some other police forces] who just arrived [in the town]. At 6 a.m. the heads of the [local German authority] arrived – [including] landwirte [local German senior official], Gendarmerie and while being drunk they burst into the ghetto [of the unqualified persons] and began to drive the people with whips to one square at the ghetto. The crying, shouting of the children, [mixed with] wild screams of the bandits – all this was terrible. Our side [of the ghetto] was also guarded by the German hangmen who didn't let anyone to get onto the streets. [Nevertheless] I managed to make my way to the [house of the] neighbor and through her window I saw everything. There, at the square, were children, young girls, old women, [everyone] without exception. The girls were throwing themselves at the feet of the Germans, pleading with them to let them go, but they [Germans] were only laughing and driving them with whips. I saw my friend who was standing, leaning on her mother and crying bitterly. Germans were raising the [Jewish] children on the bayonets while the drunk [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen, with the chief of the police, were standing, splitting their guts. The older children were beaten until they lost their consciousness. Many women lost their minds and were screaming, singing, laughing wildly, beating their own children, choking them as if this disaster was their fault. It was horrible what was going on. [At this moment] my friend, noticing one [Ukrainian auxiliary] policeman who was moving away, run towards the wire [topped on the ghetto's fence] thinking of getting through it and running away, but at that moment there was a shot and she fell dead. This was a first shot. We all winced hearing its sound. By that time the Germans had gathered all the people [i.e. inmates at the square] and began to drive them outside the ghetto. Those who tried to run away were killed instantly. They were driven through the [main] street outside the town, [their] screaming, moaning, crying were heard throughout the town. At our side [of the ghetto] were people who had relatives and families at the other part [of the ghetto], they were sitting at home watching with mad look [at these inmates who were driven to the murder site], so the rest [of the inmates of the qualified workers ghetto] were really afraid of them. Meanwhile all the people were driven … already to the dug out pits that had been dug by the … Soviet POW's who didn't know for what purpose [they were digging those pits]. All [the victims] were ordered to get undressed, there were three pits. At the beginning [Germans] began to fill up the first one. [Each time] two persons were forcibly pushed into the pit, made to lie down and [then] two bullets were fired on them. The others were ordered to lie [in groups] on the top of them, [Germans] were also shooting them, thus [all] three pits had been filled up. The clothes [of the victims] were taken away by the arriving [to the murder site] trucks and driven back to the [liquidated part of the] ghetto, where was not a single living soul left. We learned about all these details how [Germans] were shooting [the Jews] from one girl who out of 3,000 people [who had been shot to death at the site] managed to run away. But the shots and screaming [of the victims] we heard by ourselves until 2 p.m. At 2 p.m. the same bandits broke into our part of the ghetto and began to drive the people to the other [i.e. liquidated] part of the ghetto to sort the belongings of the murdered. Children, women were forced as well, with whips, to perform the hard works, [such as] carrying different kinds of furniture and loading [it] onto the trucks. We worked all the day long, while Germans were loading the finest items onto trucks and taking [them] away.…

…And here came the night of May 29, 1942… at 4 a.m. the noisy footsteps of the [German] soldiers were heard from the direction of the Train Street. About three SS men were seen approaching the ghetto gates, behind them were marching the local and not-local Ukrainian [auxiliary] policemen. They had surrounded the ghetto, and right away the eco of shots was heard, [and] wild screaming: "Jews, get out!". The SS men were running from house to house and with brutal blows were driving out the wretched, shouting and wailing out of fear Jews. The murderers pushed everyone inside the [Great] synagogue yard, while they were walking and dividing the [Jewish] men apart and [Jewish] women and children apart. The sick and old ones who couldn't walk were shot to death on the spot and thrown onto the carts [that had been waiting nearby]. This was the fate of Israel Genzelman, Victoria Zaks and others. After then the men were taken out, in dense rows and marched towards the railway station. At the first row were present Rabbi Itzchak Lerner, Pishel Margaliot, Shmuel Veinstein, Israel Raif, Hirsh Lindner. The Ukrainian [auxiliary] police used all possible means to speed up the walk of the sentenced to death. Many were bleeding from the blows they got, and many collapsed on the way, among them was Leib Kozulchik and others. These last ones were shot to death right away and thrown onto the carts that were at the rearguard. At first people thought that they would be taken towards the train [station] and some hope awoke in their hearts … [but it was only] to prolong their suffering. When they reached the tracks passage, they saw that they were directed to the right, towards the forest cave…. There [several] big deep pits had been ready for them…. All the "big ones" [i.e. local officials] from the town and its surroundings came [to watch] this murder operation: the representative of the [German] rule from [the town of] Dubno the chief Alter Hauptman, the head of the [German] labor bureau Hamarstein, the chief of SS Kramode… the head of the Ukrainian committee [i.e. the mayor of the town] [Anton] Matejko, the chief of the Ukrainian [auxiliary] police … and others. The circle around these wretched victims was getting narrower and the murderers began with their murder-work with wild shouting and whips blows. They forced these unfortunates to strip naked, and afterwards made them run into the open pits while the SS men were hailing on them fire and lead from the machine-guns. The victims fell straight into the pits as a bundle of grains after the harvester…. Among those who fell there were many who hadn't been wounded, or had been wounded and didn't die yet, but the earth covered all of them and those who were still alive suffocated under it. Only one Jewish young man managed to run away from the killing valley when he hid himself, being naked, among the branches of one of the trees. The women and children were staying all that time at the yard of the synagogue that had been encircled by the Ukrainian police. Their shouting and wailings were heart-rending, among them was a young woman Lyuba Tishelman that had the [work] certificate [and could stay alive] but she didn't want to be separated from her parents, and thus decided to share their fate. They all were sitting on the ground, and as a livestock near the slaughterhouse, were waiting for the slaughterers who would take them to the slaughter … At 8 a.m. they met their fate, the same fate that had met an hour before their husbands, sons and brothers. The blood stains revealed them that through this way were passing before them their dear ones. When they [women and children] reached the [murder] site they saw two pits, one was covered, while the other was empty, whitewashed. They had no doubts that it was ready for them. Heart breaking yelling rose to the heavens, but the gates of mercy didn't open … the women, half naked, were wailing and bitterly crying. Some of them lost their minds, like Mrs. Krips, who was holding her child in her arms. The beasts in a human form, cruel and armed, gained easily a control over their victims, killed them in the cold blood, filled up the empty pit and covered it with earth. After they had carried out their murderous mission with innocent women and children, the murderers, restrained, entered the dining room, made for themselves a big feast, and while eating and gluttoning, they compiled a report about this murder [operation] and all those who were present signed it. The report of killing 1,540 Jews between [the towns of] Radziwiłłow and Brody was signed at 12 p.m. Afterwards the chief of the SS entered the ghetto no. 2 [i.e. for the qualified workers] and ordered the Judenrat to serve the murderers 1,000 cigarettes. The Judenrat fill immediately the order and provided the cigarettes. After then the peasants brought on carts the clothes of the killed. On the orders of Matejko, the clothes were put in the house of Rabbi Yitzchak Lerner and the house was locked up. Though there was no one in this part of the ghetto no. 1 [i.e. for the unqualified], the guarding over it continued. A group of people from the second part of the ghetto was sent to clean up the blood [of the victims] that had not been solidified yet and to blot out any memory of the traces of this horrible murder, mainly on the streets and in the yards. I was also among the cleaners. At the first opportunity that was given to me, I approached my parents' house, I looked for them at the hideout that I had set up [for them] that was covered with sawdust that I brought from the sawmill – in vain, I didn't find them anymore… the wick of their lives was cut off several hours beforehand and they found their death in a big mass grave at the forest cave near the village of Levyatin.… The [local] peasants were telling that even on the third day after the killing, the earth was heaving over the mass grave and their blood was flowing into the forest cave.… On October 5, [1942] it became known in the [qualified worker's] ghetto that the murderers of the [inmates] of the first part of the ghetto were sitting again at the dining room, drinking schnapps and getting ready for the [murder] operation.… These murderers were received in this dining room by all those who had been waiting for this moment: the [Ukrainian auxiliary] police, the Folk Deutsche from the [town's] surroundings, and the rest of the German plate suckers… who proved their loyalty to the Nazis by beating and murdering Jews. All of them were given now rubber sticks, weapon and also – much drinking…. [Later] the [local] peasants were recounting that as during the former murder operation, [this time] the people, including women and children, were taken by the same way [to the murder site]. Many were murdered on their way to the pits, thrown onto the carts, and later thrown into the open pits. This time as well there were two pits [at the murder site], but apparently the murderers had decided to bury everyone, about 900, in one pit.…

… One day, it was at the end of June 1942, early in the morning, when everybody was still sleeping, the ghetto had been suddenly surrounded by the Germans and [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen and all those who didn't have work certificates [i.e. the inmates of the ghetto for the unqualified] were ordered to take with them the most needed items. Everybody was lined up in rows, and the sick ones who couldn't walk were loaded onto carts and trucks. Leibish Kozulchik and Haim, his son, who resisted and refused to go, were shot to death on the spot. There were more Jews who refused to go, they were shot to death instantly, and Germans took with them their bodies. All [the Jews] were taken, under strong guard, towards a grove near the village of Levyatin … and there all of them were shot to death inside the pits that were ready for them. On the same day, i.e. the day of the ghetto liquidation, I was working with the horses at the mill [outside the ghetto]. The non-Jews told me in details about the murder operation. Toward evening I went, accompanied by one non-Jew, … to the [murder] site. The shot to death were still twitching, a layer of earth that was covering them was rising and descending, there was a lot of blood all around. I can't tell whether someone managed to escape from there, but I think that one boy, Reuven Zaiger, … succeeded to run away from the pits. The non-Jews were telling that the victims had to strip naked, to lie on the ground, and then the murderers poured upon them a fire from the machine-guns. Then the next group of victims had to prostrate themselves over the bodies of the murdered, … a layer on the top of a layer, [and then were shot to death], until everyone were murdered. Thus a large part of the Radziwiłłów's Jews was annihilated.… Not even five months had passed since the liquidation of the first ghetto, when a rumor that the Germans had been preparing to annihilate all the Radziwiłłów's Jews … reached us.… Only several days had passed [since then] – it seems to me that it was at the end [sic] of October – suddenly the Germans and [Ukrainian auxiliary] policemen had surrounded the [other part of the] ghetto [i.e for the qualified workers] and like during the previous murder operation all [the inmates] were taken to the same [murder] site. There, in front of the mas-graves, had been prepared [additional] two pits, and the remaining Jews of Radziwiłłlów were put to death inside them. The Germans had prepared two pits, but only one [of them] was filled, the other one remained empty. [Non-Jews] were recounting that [during the shooting] the Germans wanted to keep alive [a man named] Weiderhorn, [German-speaking Jew from Hungary], [who was], a translator, but he preferred to die together with his family. My parents and my sister were killed [as well] during this mass murder operation.…

… We were napping a little bit in the darkness, but our heart was awake, since no one, except him, knew what might happen. [Suddenly] we noticed the spotlights illuminating the other part of the ghetto [i.e. for the unqualified workers]. Shortly afterwards we were surrounded by blood-thirsty murderers holding rubber-sticks in their hands, shouting, beating, and expelling the Jews from the ghetto. Sick ones, old persons, who couldn't be fast in their walking, were shot to death on the spot. Babies, little children became play-balls in their hands, thrown forcibly until they fell dead. Young people and those of middle ages were lined up in the row in groups of six, and taken under the guard of armed Germans and Ukrainians [i.e. Ukrainian auxiliary police] as sheep to the slaughter. At the edge of the town, at Suchodolie, there had been already [prepared several] pits. There all [the victims] had been murdered inside the pits. The injured ones who were still alive were buried alongside the dead ones…. Thus our fathers, brothers, sisters and children went, without knowing it, towards the slaughter. And we, who had been left alive in the meantime, knew that the same fate was awaiting us. There was no hope anymore, no saving for the Jews.…